Sheriff: 'I Was Trying To Kill' Truck Chase Suspect

GOOD for him!! i'm glad he wasn't scared to publicly say that F'R needed to be stopped at ANY cost.

 

#### this is crazy
he wanted to kill him

 

I watched this chase happen on local news, strange because I almost never watch tv during the day. It's interesting to me that they refer to the driver as a "suspect" and not a thief or truck hijacker. This clown was guilty of theft the minute he got into the truck and drove off, and when they got him stopped (because the truck broke down) he wouldn't get out of the cab. Then the guy actually fought with them instead of just cooperating, he obviously was not right upstairs and definitely should never be under the wheel of a big rig. I really don't blame the sheriff for wanting to shoot this man dead to save innocent lives - IMO.

Whatever the problem was, anytime police are dealing with a vehicle that dangerous they are more concerned with the damage it could cause to others. The part of this chase that I watched was about the last 20 minutes, including them removing him from the cab by force. He was driving down the highway with both steer tires gone (rims tearing up the road), and 2 of the 8 drive tires coming apart, with the truck driver riding on the catwalk. It was a crazy sight to say the least.

One thing I'd like to comment on is the way the truck was approached and contained by law enforcement. They had the truck surrounded, with weapons drawn everywhere - not necessarily safe or professional IMO. If any of the officers would have fired upon the hijacker, they could've easily hit the officers in their line of fire. When you watch the video clip, check out Barney Fife with the shotgun at the rear of the tractor. If he would've fired that thing you would've had a whole ER full of innocent bystanders. I would've told that clown to get that thing off me or I'd deal with him later. There is nothing he could've done from his firing position to improve any situation, and it just looked like a 10 year old pointing a gun thinking it would do something helpful.

For my tax money, I would like to see much more restrained and safe action in the future. After all, they had so many officers nearby that a ricochet hit another officer, and luckily didn't kill him or severely threaten his health (so far as we know). The officer that fired his weapon should probably be written up, and he's very fortunate that he didn't cause more harm with his wreckless action. Whether someone "supposedly" has a firearm or not, this was (apparently) not a safe course of events.

And on a nearly identical point, they had far too many vehicles involved in the pursuit. There is nothing 20 cars can do to that truck, that 6 couldn't do just as well, while the other 14 keep their patrols in check wherever they came from. The same 6 officers could've dealt with this hijacker when they got him stopped just fine, 20 officers is just leaving other areas completely unprotected (and pointing WAY too many weapons at other officers).

At some point, they should assign a chase lead officer in charge, and break off many of the units - we just don't have enough enforcement to be doing things like this. The video footage of the chase looked like an ad for lightbars, and if anyone would've dodged a 'gator it could've been a 10 car pile up. After all, 4 of the 10 tires on that tractor were coming apart and going all over the road. I've eye-witnessed a 10 car pile up over a single blown tire before and it wasn't pretty, safe or cheap. The vehicles were following too close, and couldn't avoid each other. I was right in the middle of it, with enough safe space in front of me to slow and then escape into the median. After that the driver behind me collided with the vehicle in front of me *phew*.

This post looks long-winded and I hope I didn't bore anybody, but I think somebody needs to say it, "SAFETY FIRST AND ALWAYS".

 

HwyPilot,

You're right. Way to many cars. I am a Emergency Vehicle Operation Course (EVOC) instructor for my Department. The way we teach it, and many departments, is the primary vehicle controls the pursuit. The secondary car calls the location, speeds, actions of the suspect, violations (such as "suspect ran the stop sign, suspect vehicle speeds are between 85-95 mph" etc) We teach no more than 4 cars involved. The others parallel the pursuit on the other roads, set up stop sticks, block intersections, etc. When you get more than 4 cars involved in a pursuit it is a total cluster. I have been involved in approximately 80-90 pursuits in my career. Many that I have initiated. I pursued by myself many times, really easy no other cars to worry about. Just one problem, I had a shooting with the supect after the pursuit and waited 25 minutes for my closet back up to arrive. Two cars are the perfect scenario in my opinion. Three is still a good option. Four cars is getting crowded and a lot of watching and looking so you don't cut someone off. I've been in a few pursuits where there has been 6, 8, 10, 12 cars involved. Way to hectic, the radio traffic is very confusing and talking over each other. with this many cars it is multiple jurisdictions involved who have different protocols than my Department does. And like you witnessed, after the pursuits, that many officers running up in all different directions, guns pointing every which way. No thank you, way to dangerous, to much risk for friendly fire.